What is Tobacco Used for?

For centuries, tobacco was hailed for its myriad of uses and medical cures. However, its modern day standing leaves a lot to be desired.

Despite this plant’s modern day reputation for causing long term ailments, tobacco leaves should be considered an ideal plant for homeopathic practices, self-reliant living as well as a great bartering item for a long term emergency.

Consider the following beneficial uses for tobacco.

Gardening

Tobacco is a great insect repellent for the kitchen garden. By simply soaking as little as a cigarette amount of tobacco in a quart of water and allowing it to soak overnight, the nicotine released in the water will create an all purpose insect repellent.

Aphid Control – Aphids are a real nuisance if allowed to thrive on garden plants. Here’s a handy tip to rid your garden of them for good!

• Prepare a mixture of 1 cup. powdered garlic
• 1 c. compost
• 1 c. tobacco (organic preferably)

Blend this mixture into the soil around the base of your aphid infested plants.

Peach Tree Borers – Sprinkling tobacco dust around peach trees will deter the dreaded peach tree borer from infesting your tree.

Leaf Roller – These greenish larvae make a home out of perfectly good leaves. They can destroy plants of all kinds in a matter of weeks! I have created an offering plate for birds every morning of these caterpillars. But to easily rid your garden of them:

Use a mixture of tobacco dust, pyrethrum powder (dried pyrethrum flowers crumbled into a powder) and make a solution to spray on the leaf roller.

Garden Centipede – These litter guys will eat your young plants up in no time, so get rid of them with this simple solution:

Drench the soil with a mixture of water, garlic and tobacco. Caution: This is a very foul smelling, but potent combination.

Gophers and Moles – Did you know that gophers and moles hate tobacco?

Shred a package of non-filtered cigarettes and drop it down in the hole. They cannot stand it!

Spiders – Although garden spiders are always welcome in my garden, it’s cousins are not allowed! To rid your yard of spiders:

Boil 1 gallon of water and drop a package of chewing tobacco into the water and allow to cool.

Once cooled, strain the solution and use it as a spray around the yard and in the cracks of your home.

Medicinal Use

Indians used tobacco as a pain reliever for ear aches, toothaches and as a poultice. The leaves of N. attenuata variety were mainly used for the medical purposes. In fact, currently there are test studies being performed to find a way to extract the pain relieving components of tobacco and remove the addictive ones to use for medical purposes. Note that the medical profession will not allow nicotine to be a treatment for medical issues or mental illnesses due to to the health risks; but they are studying the benefits of tobacco nonetheless.